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Note that ink for this printer will space you attend One Hundred and fourteen dollars!!!

Before purchasing the Officejet 8500, be aware that there appears to be compatibility issues with the new drivers (as of 5/5/2009) and Windows XP. Basically, the user gets the following error: "The printer has not yet responded, but the Microsoft Office program may be able to fade without printer information". I have spent hours on the phone with their India-based tech wait on and with their chat technical benefit. Sadly, HP provides the worst technical relieve that I have ever experienced. The telephone reps barely content English and the chat reps assist multiple customers at the same time, leading to long delays between their responses. Moreover, I have been slash off during chat sessions five times, which leads me to enjoy it is intentional as this always seems to happen when I attempt to corner them on difficult questions. Before getting sever off today (5/5/2009) the chat technical help derive acknowledged that there are known incompatibilities between the drivers and Windows XP. Presumably, this means the software was written for Vista.

Also be aware of the tremendous ink cartridge prices that will area you attend half the cost of a unusual printer.

This is the third HP multifunction printer I have purchased. Historically, I have purchased top-of-the-line models from the HP Officejet line for my home office. Generally, I have been rather gay and impressed with their ability to work for years with few paper jams, either in the printer or document feeder. My necessary complaints with HP and these printers are twofold: 1) the ink prices are exorbitant (i.e. pay as you go) and 2) HP has inferior tech assist. The Officejet 8500 appears to have all-around better construction than the other HP Officejet multifunction printers I have owned. Yet it hasn't been without problems.

Looking attend at my other purchases, it is striking how worthy prices have approach down. Yet HP continues to gouge its customers on ink with the four cartridges costing $[...]+ tax. The first Officejet (d155xi) worked almost flawlessly for three years. I finally decided to sell it when entertaining. The second Officejet (7310xi) worked extremely well until one day it would not power on. Apparently, something had gone substandard with its main processor. The printer was on a surge protector the entire time, so I have no understanding why this happened. I do turn the surge protector off every day before going to work to establish electricity as this severs vampire loads from the electrical system. Perhaps the on/off cycles were not pleasant for the printer. After determining the 7310xi was beyond repair, I purchased an Officejet 8500 from HP reveal. The printer appears to be well made, but it has problems with communicating with my notebook in addition to having issues with photo printing that have been not fully resolved.

The timeline of my Officejet purchases:

2002 - March Officejet d155xi (HP Swear) 800 + tax/shipping

2006 - March Officejet 7310xi (Sam's Club) 368 + tax

2009 - April Officejet 8500 (HP Boom) 269 + tax/shipping -fifty buck trade-in rebate for 7310xi

The 8500 does not advance with a USB cable, which was not an notify [at first] since I have so many surplus cables. Apparently, the 16ft cable I outmoded with the 7310xi was not compatible, possibly because it may have been a USB 1.0 version, which I can't choose. So I tried one of the dozen or so shorter USB cables I have, some of which were in fact USB 2.0. While I got the printer to work, I repeatedly find errors such as "The printer has not yet responded, but the Microsoft Office program may be able to depart without printer information". So, I purchased a unusual 16ft. Belkin USB 2.0. Unfortunately, I calm rep the same errors and freezing of the computer. I have not resolved the scrape and don't leer forward to calling HP's tech attend. Their Indian wait on reps have the worst English I have ever had to deal with in a tech back setting. I do enjoy their unusual chat tech-support option, which allows the customer to rob his skill level such as "novice" or "expert". Yet, the chat sessions abruptly severed communication with me multiple times with a red warning message, "we are having technical problems, please call tech encourage". What a ridiculous headache!

PRINTER Form AND Fabricate QUALITY

Despite HP's less than acceptable tech attend, HP's engineers deserve credit for improving the get and accomplish quality of their multifunction printers. Even though the previous printers never had a spot with broken paper trays or document feeders, these plastic pieces seemed extremely flimsy. The 8500 seems to be better constructed in that thicker, rigid plastic was primitive. Additionally, the parts that require interaction by the user, such as the receptacles for the ink cartridges, are noteworthy more accessible.

SPEED

While I have not conducted a side-by-side test, both printing and scanning appear to be faster than my most modern Officejet prior to this one, the 7310xi. Despite the increased run, the 8500 doesn't shake my printer stand as violently as the 7310xi did, suggesting the engineers old-fashioned a lower-inertia print head. The scanning appears slightly faster, but really not speedy enough for tall jobs. Truthfully, I would pay a lot more for considerable faster scanning. I have a grown accustomed to using a Ricoh 6500 copier/printer/scanner at my day job. The ~50 page/minute scan to pdf capability really changes the utility of the printer.

STILL NO DOUBLE SIDED SCANNING

One of the features that really attracted me to the novel Officejet was its double-sided printing capability. Unfortunately it doesn't provide upright double sided scanning. Some of scan options suggest the 8500 can invent double sided scanning but this appears to be more of function to interleave the second (support) site of pages. For larger double-sided documents, I rep myself using the industrial strength Ricoh 6500.

PRINT QUALITY

The sunless text quality appears to be slightly better than that of the 7310xi. In fact, it appears indistinguishable from laser print quality. However, there have been some problems printing in color. First, when printing on dead white paper on regular ink volume settings, the colors appear a bit less quick-witted than the prints I made with my 7310xi. In fact, I have a few samples of color documents printed on the 7310xi that I was able to compare side-by-side with the output of the 8500, which clearly showed the incompatibility between the two prints. Yet, this may be a result of HP's strategy to market this printer as being more ink efficient.

When printing on photo paper, there appears to be some issues when selecting the photo quality settings and "HP Advanced Photo Paper" as the paper type. Using both HP photo paper and Kodak "everyday" photo paper, there were striations across the center of the page. It isn't positive if the HP photo paper I was using was truly their "advanced" paper as this was a sample pack from HP. When using the "other photo paper" option, there were no striations. With obvious other papers, however, I found that the ink would bustle with the slightest exposure to water - even after drying for more than one hour. Barely visible drops of water would cause easily visible spots on the page. While it isn't positive precisely what was done with the ink and requisite paper compatibility, the 8500 does appear to be more fickle than the predecessors.

In summary, the 8500 appears to be better designed and constructed than previous Officejet models but is less user excellent. My guess is that many of the problems I am experiencing will be resolved when current drivers are made available. However, as a fairly technical user, I would not request so many difficulties getting the printer to work. Moreover, HP's consumer tech abet is so unforgivably awful the company does not deserve your business.

Cons:

*Tech serve is totally unacceptable, off-shore reps have both a dreadful deny of the English language and extinct technical skills

*Online chat tech wait on is disjointed with reps chatting with multiple customers simultaneously

*Printer communication problems unresolved as of 5/5/2009

*Photo printing requires more adjustments of settings

*Still doesn't have a fair double-siding SCANNING mechanism

*Drivers for XP seem to have compatibility issues

Pros

*Fast printing and scanning for a section of home office equipment

*Sturdier construction than predecessors

*Reasonable brand for the performance/functionality

*Smoother/quieter than previous Officejet printers

I have been looking for a networked color laser printer worthy for home and limited office expend for some time. Then I received an ad for this printer. I was convinced to try it because of the recent ink technology, the relatively uncouth cost of replacement ink cartridges and the duplex printing capability. So far I've been completely joyful. It's easily quick enough for my consume. Print quality is high. It seems to have well-behaved color accuracy; I've printed a couple of photos on high quality photo paper and been quite jubilant. It was a tear to install (we are a Mac household) . The scan and copy functions are easy to consume. Duplex printing is humdrum but adequate for the times it is dilapidated. I've yet to have to replace a cartridge so I can't narrate to the cost per page of printing.

In our runt office we print over 5000 sheets a month and section the printer over a USB switch with 4 of us. We exhaust it also for scanning and sending out customer documents. Accelerate for faxing and scanning was necessary as we often scan and fax 20 to 40 pgs.

The sign per page was marvelous due to the oversized ink cartridges printing 2 or 3 times the number of pages as we had previously obtained with other HP ink jets. For every day printing we have further carve printing costs by 75% by using refilled cartiridges from ebay. Overall the best color printer we have purchased in the last 4 years.

Only drawback that we have found is that for pdf scanning, a order usb connection to a PC is required. Bottom line: Its got run and the initial effect is higher, but with considerable lower ink costs, payback is in a couple of months.

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I concept I would obtain what is normally the conclusion the beginning fragment because not everyone may have the time or the disposition to go through all these paragraphs unless actually eager in making a occupy. I am providing more detail that should help my conclusions AFTER the evaluation fraction.

Evaluation

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The reviewed unit meets the claim of it being a all-in-one solution. While it is not likely that any individual user would seize advantage of all its features on a regular basis, it is reassuring to know that the features are there. The supplied software and the printer's beget console interface allow for a tremenduous amount of flexibility and customization. Some of the more advanced features will require an above-average level of computer expertise but, even without a lot of customization, this will be a useful, apt printing/faxing/copying/scanning appliance.

While the pleasant quality of output would form this printer a beneficial 'small office' candidate, its accelerate would probably disqualify it if the petite office was doing any famous amount printing. I provided some personal benchmarks so that any prospective microscopic business buyer could resolve. As a 'home' printer, this comes as halt to perfect as they near. I will be using it as a home printer so please do justify my rating within that context.

A minor observation regarding 'design'. I found it captivating that some of the functions available on the touch mask are duplicated on physical buttons on the printer's console. This was striking because I actually saw this model for sale at Unusual York's Fifth Ave. Apple store. It immediately occured to me that an Apple designer would have none of those buttons if allowed to redesign the product. This is not criticism, it's only an observation, also prompted by the fact that, for example, when specifying the number of copies to be printed, I could NOT expend the physical number pad but had to punch the number on the virtual keypad displayed on the touch camouflage.

The strong, almost violent shaking the printer brings itself to when not on a perfectly actual surface was a diminutive disturbing to me. I have shrimp doubt that, if improperly placed, the printer would speedily lose its printheads alignment and it might even experience other technical worry.

Finally, I am cheerful that the HP Tech encourage solved my Vista-related quandary but it would have been better if a printer that was manufatured only a few days before I received it had an updated CD or, at least, a flyer advising Vista users how to regain the updated driver.

Considering all of the above, the this printer gets a strong, very sure 4 stars.

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First impressions

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The HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless All-In-One Printer integrates print, copy, fax, scan document and photo-processing functions. HP supplies the printer itself, 'starter' ink cartridges, print heads and a phone wire. Ethernet or USB cables are not included. Thin manuals are provided for wireless and FAX setup. A snappily installation poster is provided as well. The paunchy 300+ manual can be downloaded from the HP dwelling. The CD has drivers for the several supported Operating Systems and a number of additional applications such as OCR (optical character recognition) .

Besides the Ethernet and USB ports, other physical IO include 2 telephone jacks in the abet and slots for several types of memory cards in the front. The printer can be controlled from a PC or directly through a touch-screen color note and several buttons that generally duplicate options on the menus available through the touch-screen interface. To satisfy energy saving concerns, the printer goes to sleep if not primitive for a while but it can be reactivated by either touching the hide or one of the buttons or remotely from a networked workstation.

Software

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Drivers are available for the most fresh flavors of Windows (Vista, XP, 2000) and for the Mac. It can be configured to either a local printer, connected to a PC via a USB cable or as a network printer, wired (Ethernet) or wireless (802.11g) . Another option (not tested by me) would be for one PC to connect the printer via USB and then fragment it over the network. I experienced problems installing the Vista drivers but HP's tech back addressed it by replacing the CD-supplied drivers with a version available at HP's station.

While installing the drivers, HP will also install a number of applications and services. Of these the HP Solutions Center is the most versatile. It monitors the printer's position, including the ink levels and allows for configuring printing, scanning, faxing and other capabilities such as the forwarding of documents to network folders (tested) or to email (not tested yet) . In addition, the home page can be faded to control fax and scan operations, to convert a graphic image to text and to inaugurate other applications such as the HP Photosmart Necessary. I posted images of the Home and Configuration screens.

I did not fully test the Photosmart Notable application yet but I quiz it to meet most basic photo management and printing needs and perhaps more.

If staying with the defaults at drivers installation, HP will install other, generally unneeded or unwelcome applications and services. One of them, the HP Customer Participation Program seems to be taking hundreds of megabytes but not doing anything useful from the end-user's point of understanding. I found Web discussions indicating that the 'program' was guilty of a memory leak. I removed it. Another unwelcome (to me) addition is the 'Yahoo Toolbar' to my Internet Explorer which I don't utilize anyway. This was done without asking for my permission. I had to spend Vista's Control Panel to catch it after the fact.

Finally, one 'glitch' that occured after my initial installation from the supplied HP disk had a pop-up constantly telling me that the "HP product assistant" had to be installed or updated and asking me to provide a path. Providing the path for the requested file which I found burried 3 levels deep inside the supplied CD, was not helping and the cycle kept repeating endlessly. Some Web research revealed that this was a favorite quandary and there were not many known solutions. I was able to catch at the HP set a utility that tried to acquire all HP drivers software from my PC but, 4 reboots later and after re-installing the drivers, the popup returned. A call to the HP attend was answered and a technician was able to address the spot after taking over my computer, performing the 'cleanup' job that I tried myself and then installing an updated version of the drivers, downloaded from the HP residence. The file name for Vista 32-bit is OJP8500vA909_Full_12.exe. I will post an image showing how to derive to the drivers from the HP Solution Center. The HP suppport remediation completed after about 2 hours. The HP technician stated that 'only Vista' installations experience this plight. XP or Mac users should be fine.

Print

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Ink-jet printing outputs natty documents even on the 'normal' resolution. Printouts can be either color or dismal and white, one-sided or two-sided. Print quality can be region to anything gain 'general everyday printing' to presentation, photo-quality or to ink-saving 'fast/economical printing'. The supplied paper tray can be loaded with up to 250 sheets up to 'legal' size. One-sided print rush is adequate but duplex printing can be quite monotonous.

The print operation appears to alive to a colossal deal of physical movement inside the printer. If placed on anything but a very right platform, the printer tends to swing quite violently from left to factual and serve. This had me concerned enough to proceed it from its initial station.

Copy

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The copy function allows for anything from one-sided/one-sided to two-sided/two-sided copies. As in the case of printing, two-sided copies are considerable slower to originate. The copy quality is obedient enough to fabricate the copy almost indistinguishable from the modern.

Fax

---

I did not fully test the FAX capabilities but it's worth menioning that a lot of flexibility is provided, including the ability to remark the faxes to a network folder (which I did test with the scan function) rather than having them printed. It is also possible to block 'junk' faxes by maintaining a list of the offending phone numbers.

Scanner

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As a scanner, one can file the output to any of up to 10 preset network folders or if when the scanning process is initiated from a PC, output can be directed to a designated user's local folder. Scanned documents can be translated to text via the integrated OCR function. My experiment with a printed document produced with Microsoft Word returned 100% accuracy for insist but, as expected, the formatting (headers, footers, margins) was not properly handled.

Photo processing

----------------

Photo processing can be controlled either at the console and the interactive touch shroud interface does allow for some flexibility. Input is provided by inserting one of the supported memory devices containing pictures (MMC SD, CF, XD, MS/DUO or USB) . Some improper cropping and sizing is available as well as color processing - sepia or gray scale prints can be produced and the colors can be manipulated to be darker or lighter. The more flexible solution and the one more likely to be faded is via the provided HP Photosmart Principal application. Either through the touch cloak interface or via HP Photosmart the printer can be configured to exhaust photo paper from either HP or 'other' manufacturers. Inks more advantageous for photo printing are available from HP but the quality of prints that I produced with the supplied ink on Canon Photo Paper Pro was superior.

Document Management

-------------------

I did not test the claimed document management capabilities yet.

Support

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I was delighted with the quality of benefit provided. After a lifeless open (20 minutes) where the Encourage Desk person asked many questions related to my identity, the printer's identity and the nature of the dilemma, I was forwarded to a technician that was able to actually solve my plight (inspect above under 'software') . It's hard to snarl whether the better than expected befriend came because I mentioned that I was in the process of reviewing the printer on behalf of a known vendor.

In addition, the HP Web sites provide a lot of material, including updated drivers and the fat manual which I aloof have to print.

Benchmarks

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I am including a few personal benchmarks with the hope that they might serve someone accomplish the suitable decision when it comes to consume a home-printer or a slight office printer.

- Printing

Was done on 10 pages of a Microsoft document that had some graphics and some color. The print quality was dwelling to 'General everyday printing'.

10 pages (10 sheets), one sided - 56 seconds.

10 pages (5 sheets), duplex - 2 minutes, 56 seconds.

- Copying

Set to 'color', 'General everyday printing' quality.

1 page, 1 copy, 1-1 side - 24 seconds.

1 page, 5 copies, 1-1 side - 1 small, 6 seconds.

5 pages, 1 copy, 1-1 side (5 sheets) - 1 exiguous, 22 seconds.

10 pages, 1 copy, 2-2 sides (5 sheets) - 3 minutes, 55 seconds.

The Bible cautions against serving two masters, a lesson of truth the product designers of HP have tried to avoid with some but not complete success.

First the first-rate news, the printing function is outstanding. Copies in dismal and white or color are crisp and distinct. HP claims that this printer's cost per copy for color copies is less than those of a color laser printer. Absent a cost/benefit behold few working lawyers are prepared to do, I cannot confirm this, but it seems possible.

On the copy side, two-sided color copying is a broad feature. Again the results are friendly, but the scanning/printing time is lifeless.

The scan quality is very suited, but scanning times are totally unacceptable. When you have a fifty page document feeder, the expectation is that the scan will be fairly rapidly. It is not. It is somewhat less than a page per small but that means nearly 45 minutes to scan a document into a pdf. Scanning for OCR is faster, and the resulting test is quite just, but whether that is a function of the scanner or sophistication of the user's OCR software cannot stated with any certainty by this reviewer.

The Printer has fax functions, but they have not been reviewed since it has not been connected to a telephone line.

It has been tested as a wireless contrivance, however, using the built-in 802.11g communicator. Wireless printing has many practical advantages, not the least of which is the elimination of repugnant wiring. One other positive advantage is that multiple computers can spend the procedure as a network printer.

While it is not a perfect diagram, it represents titanic value for the money. It performs reach the top of the class on most functions. That makes it a distinct best bewitch in my book.

Recent reviews of the HP OfficeJet Pro 8500 Wireless were indispensable of noise, vibration, and ink usage. Here are what I have discovered since installing this printer.

1. On most surfaces the noise from the printer is minimal. Movement of the plastic gears on HP, Canon, and Epson are not peaceful. Perhaps newer versions of the 8500 by HP will address this minor pains.

2. The printer vibrates slightly compared to a laser printer, but not to the extent that it is objectionable. Perhaps HP can gash or eliminate this in future models but probably by increasing the weight of the printer. Most users, I suggest, would not want a heavier printer.

3. Ink usage is share of the printer expense "game" but with HP you can continue to print in B&W even if any or all of the color cartridges are empty [Verified by HP Support] That may not be the case with some unique offerings from Epson or Canon, although I personally steal Espon and Canon printers for color prints.

4. The ink cartridges are dated, but they will continue to function even after the "expiration" date. HP prints a date on the ink package, but it does not prevent the cartridge from working. As a matter of fact, ink will remain usable in a SEALED packet for an extended period without danger. This date code is not a rip-off by HP anymore than other companies who print a freshness date.

5. It is certainly less expensive to order color prints online than to seize OEM ink and paper. For those with a digital camera who need a speedily print now and then the quality of the HP is top-notch.

6. Setup is easy. I would only add a mark to the directions for Step 7 to input your choice of language and then follow the touch cloak directions as the printer processes alignment. The directions are not obvious on that one point, and you could wait for 30 minutes wondering why it hasn't competed alignment of the print heads. Check this out if you bewitch this printer.

7. I am punctilious concerning most purchases and, at least in this case, I feel that this printer is an outstanding VALUE even when other offerings from Canon, Brother, and Epson may be less expensive. I have seen printers on sale for less than $50, but the thin plastic housing and the print quality consider the impress. We wanted Print / Copy / Scan / Fax, although we will seldom expend the FAX function. (I will only connect the FAX as needed) .

8. Follow the directions CAREFULLY and install precisely and you will delight in owning this printer.